F1 | Leclerc: “The pole is good, now we have to manage the tires well”

When you play a point-to-point World Cup, being able to give your rival’s morale a blow is always important. And probably today Charles Leclerc managed to give one to Max Verstappen, who was already looking forward to the pole position of the Spanish Grand Prix.

After managing to save a set of tires for the race, passing the cut of Q2 with a set of used soft, the Ferrari driver made a mistake in the first attempt of the Q3, ending up spinning at the chicane leading to the last corner. .

All while the Red Bull rival had put himself in front of everyone, with a time that seemed hardly to be beaten by the competition. A bang for the Dutchman, who this weekend had given the feeling of being very well placed in terms of the race, but not as well at the top on the flying lap.

The Monegasque, however, did not lose heart and in his only attempt available he pulled out a practically perfect lap, even going down to 1’18 “750 to sign his fourth pole position of the season and trim a good 323 thousandths to Verstappen, who however, he was unable to answer him due to a drop in power on his last lap.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

“I feel good. It was a very difficult qualifying, especially in Q3, because I made a mistake in the first attempt,” said Leclerc in the heat, immediately after dropping out of his F1-75.

“At that point, of course, I only had one lap, but it went extremely well. I had some little scare, but in the end I managed to do everything perfectly and I’m very happy with the pole position. It was a great lap”, he added.

Despite the pole position, Charles warned everyone, given that on Friday the Reds had had some problems in managing the tires in the long run, but today they gave the feeling of having solved in FP3. The World Cup leader, however, remains very cautious.

“We have a good starting position, but in the last few races we have struggled with tire management compared to Red Bull. Then Max is just behind us, so if we don’t manage the tires well we will lose the race. We have to understand the situation well. trying to do a good job from this point of view “.

With Carlos Sainz in third position, Verstappen will be in the sandwich of the Reds, so we can at least try to play as a team: “Yes, we will try. We hope to be able to score two goals, Carlos and I, it would be fantastic for the team. this”.